


Learning to breathe

by littleramblings



Series: A mountain more [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Very brief Lydia/Aiden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-26
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-21 09:10:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/898511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleramblings/pseuds/littleramblings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>''They're great in ways not even Deucalion knows because they're AidenandEthan, they're pack and family all at once; they're a part of each other even when they're not together, and it's crazy, this connection they have. It's crazy, but it's theirs.''</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning to breathe

 

It's three days since The Incident, as Ethan likes to think of it, and it's as though nothings changed while, at the same time, everything's completely different. They wake up, eat, go to school and have the odd fight with either the McCall or Hale pack, but recently it's more the latter – Derek and Kali dance around each other in a way that reminds Ethan of two lions fighting over a scrap of meat, but what the replacement is for that metaphor, he doesn't know. What he does know, however, is that his bed is cold and Aiden smells like perfume and rubbed off lipstick; that he takes Lydia into empty classrooms or dark corners, and even sometimes the empty locker room, to cop a feel and kiss until her lips are swollen and he feels a little warmer. Ethan wishes he didn't, but there's no way to un-see memories when Aiden's practically re-living them every time they morph. 

 

Three days is seventy-two hours. It's 4320 minutes and for someone who ages at a slower pace than the rest of mankind, Ethan's never worried too much about time. He could spend a week on something that should only take a day and it wouldn't worry him, nor would he spare the task or its timespan much thought, but it's been the longest three days of Ethan's life. He's tired of sleeping alone, tired of waking up holding his pillow instead of his brother and tired of being warmed by the quilt rather than the boy he discovered everything with. Ironically, it's Danny that turns things around. 

 

“Hey, are you alright?” he asks one day, both he and Ethan sat on one of the benches in the courtyard, Danny weaving the net on his lacrosse stick. It may not be the season for it, but that doesn't mean a few of the lads don't practice once a week, desperate to make front line when autumn comes.

 

For a moment Ethan considers lying; it's their fault he and Aiden are in this rut and he knows it won't be appreciated if Aiden finds out he's told Danny about their spat, but - “You know what? I've been better.” – Aiden's always been Ethan's constant and screw keeping the hurt to himself. 

 

Danny's fingers still, eyes glancing up to his boy's. “Want to talk about it?”

 

Ethan nods, hands on his knees as his fingers trace a pattern on the rough denim. “So, Aiden and I... we're not exactly on good terms at the minute. I pissed him off and now he's doing something very similar to what I did in order to piss _me_ off, and it really doesn't help that we have to work together outside of school, and I want to fix it, I do, but I don't know how. I can't change what I did.”

 

“Are you sorry?” Danny asks, shifting so that he's angled towards Ethan. “Do you regret what you did?”

 

Ethan pauses, thinking. Does he regret Danny? It's laughable, really, taking advice from the person this is all about, a person that's still so naïve it's ridiculous. But Ethan sees the way that the sun catches Danny's hair and makes it shine, he sees the way his eyes are honest and his emotions bare, heart worn on his sleeve the way Ethan's never known anyone do, and he shakes his head, eyes fixed on the ground. “No,” he says, soft. “I don't regret it.”

 

Danny nods. “If you can't apologise and if you don't want to take it back,” he starts, leaning in until Ethan can smell the faint traces of sweat from the afternoon sun and the Armani sprayed just that morning. “then you have to try to move past it. It's like what coach always says: 'There's going to be issues in every game and none will have the exact outcome you want, but if you work as a team, together, you can still make it something great'.”

 

They are great, Ethan thinks, he and Aiden. They're great in ways not even Deucalion knows because they're _AidenandEthan,_ they're pack and family all at once; they're a part of each other even when they're not together, and it's crazy, this connection they have. It's crazy, but it's _theirs._

 

“I have to go.” Ethan says, standing up before he's even finished speaking, and it takes everything he has to walk at a normal pace into the school while his muscles ache to go faster, to run and find Aiden as soon as his body allows, but he can't. 

 

It takes six minutes. Six agonizingly slow minutes for Ethan's senses to lead him to an English Lit classroom, light switched off making it nearly impossible for a regular kid to see in, but for Ethan it's no problem. He knows the outline of his brother and someone far smaller, too, leaning against the desk with their bodies pressed far too close together for his liking. 

 

The door's not locked and he opens it quickly, in time to see Lydia push back off Aiden with her eyes slightly wide, heartbeat spiked only a little. “Um, hi.” she says, and Ethan appreciates that she at least has the decency to blush. 

 

Ethan jerks his head to the hallway behind him. “I'd like to talk to my brother alone for a minute, if that's alright with you.” And it's not a question, not by a long shot; his voice is firm and his gaze fixed on Aiden, though through the corner of his eye he sees Lydia shouldering her bag, ducking her head as she slides past him, closing the door behind her.

 

It clicks into place softly but to the quiet room it's far too loud and Aiden's looking anywhere but at his brother, which – no. That won't do at all. He's quick, one minute Ethan's inches from the door and the next he's a hair's breadth from Aiden's body, one hand raising to land on the back of Aiden's head, pulling him forwards into a kiss. It's fiery, rough and practised. Aiden's quick to respond, one hand fisting into the back of Ethan's shirt while the other rests on his hip, leaving fingerprint bruises underneath the denim.

 

“Stop ignoring me.” Ethan hisses against Aiden's mouth, biting down on his lower lip before pulling away to meet his eyes. “I mean it, fucking _stop it._ ” 

 

Aiden growls, spinning until he has Ethan pressed against the teacher's desk, pushed back until his front arches and Aiden leans down, recapturing his lips. “You're such a dick.” 

 

Ethan melts into it, has missed having Aiden in this way and has missed the roughness, the way Aiden pushes him too far but not far enough, and it's so entirely different to Danny that maybe one day he'll wonder how he's going to chose, but that's a worry for another time and definitely another place. “Love you more,” he pants, hand cupping Aiden's jaw as his eyes slip closed. “Always more.”

 

Aiden kisses him again, softer this time and only once, before pressing their foreheads together. “Okay,” he breathes, tongue darting out to wet his lips. “Okay.” 

 

_We're okay,_ Ethan thinks, breathing in the scent that's solely theirs as his hands wonder, memorising his brother all over again. _We're going to be okay._

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's a bit late this week. I have this thing called tumblr, if any of you are interested in that. It's foreversecretlyyours


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